Saturday, July 2, 2016

July 2, 2016. First explorations of Sheffield

LOCATION:  Sheffield, South Yorkshire in northern England
WEATHER:  Typical English weather.  Sun, then rain, sun again. Highs in 60s

After doing last-minute tasks, our homeowners hit the road for their week's  holiday.  We officially started this assignment.  We fed the cats, fish and chickens.  

Railway trips are a fraction of the cost if one books ahead, so I started checking our routes to our other destinations.  We found a deal that gives a 1/3 discount when 2 travelers who  travel together.  Since we are NEVER apart, we thought this would be a good deal.  It requires buying a discount card, so we decided to go to the train station to buy it.

This was a good exercise to get to know the city layout a bit.  Sheffield has a lot of steep hills.  We walked downhill and caught the tram into the city.  We bought a week's pass good for tram and bus travel here.  That gives us flexibility.  Once downtown, we found the train station, bought our discount cards, then looked for a pub with a bathroom -:).  Happily, the train station pub was excellent.


It has lots of beers on tap, including IPAs.  It also has hundreds of imports from all over the world.  This is quite different from the options in pubs when we were here ages ago.  This pub also brews its own beer, and George chatted with the brewmaster.

Our strategy for our return trip was to catch a bus that would drop us off close to our house, avoiding the uphill climb.  We caught a double-decker bus, sat up-top to watch the scenery, and found our stop, thanks to the driver's kindness.  

Conveniently, the bus stop just happens to be next to a friendly neighborhood pub.  So, of course, we had to check it out.

We sat next to a friendly couple and had a conversation that (unusually) didn't involve discussions about Brexit or Trump.  They invited us to meet up with them one evening next week.  Nice!

DINNER:  Grilled Yorkshire trout, with leftover paella.  We will treat our cats with the fish skin tomorrow. Should make them happy!

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